About

Decibel Level Charts, also known as Noise Level Charts, is a series of exploitable graphs showing the relative decibel levels of various common sounds, typically ending with a hyperbolic example at the end of the scale representing something perceived by the creator as very loud.

Origin

On June 19th, 2016, Redditor vanjavk submitted a chart titled "Decibel Scale (dBA)" with "Civilization V opening theme" and "Dark Souls 2 grass" listed above a jet takeoff in noise production (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post received more than 14,100 points (87% upvoted) and 800 comments on /r/pcmasterrace.^[6]

Spread

On February 21st, 2017, the Irreverent Italian Memes Facebook^[5] page posted a "Decibel (dB) Range Chart," which ranked "Italian conversation" as the highest dB above "Gunshot, Metal concert" (shown below, left). Within six months, the post gathered upwards of 11,000 reactions, 5,000 shares and 1,200 comments. On May 25th, Redditor whatagaein7 submitted a photoshopped chart representing "a shampoo bottle falling off the ledge in the shower" as a higher decibel level than a "jet take-off" (shown below, right). Within three months, the post received more than 2,000 points (96% upvoted) on /r/me_irl.^[2]

On August 30th, Redditor Davethemann submitted an edited version of a decibel level chart from the infographic database Chart Valley^[1] ending with "two black chicks" at the far end of the scale (shown below, left). Within 14 hours, the post gained over 11,900 points (81% upvoted) and 220 comments on /r/dankmemes.^[3] That day, Redditor BattleCat13 submitted a variation with Chanty Binx at the end of the scale labelled as "a feminist" (shown below, right).^[4]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References